It doesn’t look that severe or harsh as it happens, but New Orleans’ face-of-the-franchise young big man Anthony Davis sprained his left shoulder with 4:13 left in the first half of the Pelicans loss Wednesday night to Dallas. He did not return for the second half. The team described it as a sprain. He was…

Tell me if this sounds at all familiar. 24 years old, about 6-foot-8, 6-foot-9. Roughly 250 pounds. Stronger and faster than just about everyone. Phenomenal basketball IQ. Highly skilled, but often criticized for what he can’t do instead of appreciated for what he does. That’s Blake Griffin. And at one point, that was LeBron James,…

No NBA head coach has been fired yet this season. Of course, “yet” is the key word there. Given the performances and the high expectations of a few teams in the Eastern Conference’s Central Division, that could be changing soon. Here’s a look at the tenuous positions of three coaches from that division, in order…

How much can an NBA player really screw up in the first 11 seconds of a half? In Andre Drummond’s case, enough to cause Detroit Pistons coach Maurice Cheeks to bench him. On the Pistons first play of the second half in a loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, Drummond set a ball screen…

LOS ANGELES — If the ball hadn’t been orange with David Stern’s signature on it rather than red, white and blue I would have sworn this was an old ABA game. It was fast paced with all kinds of offense, questionable defense, a ton of threes, some chippy play, and huge runs — the Los…

This is almost funnier than “Anchorman 2.” The latest from the Mavericks’ marketing department has Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion, Samuel Dalembert and even Jose Calderon doing a little take on Anchorman. Complete with mustaches and bad blazers. As noted by Kelly Dwyer at Ball Don’t Lie, this video of the Dallas “starting five” features six…

Samuel Dalembert overslept, keeping him from a Dallas Mavericks practice. Samuel Dalembert overslept, keeping him from a Dallas Mavericks practice. This is not a recording. The center slept too long and was late to a Mavericks workout, which caused Dallas to suspend him for its 92-80 loss to the New York Knicks on Sunday, according…

There is no movement at the top of the standings as the top five teams went 15-1 last week (and that one loss was to another top 5 team). However, get past that five and you get into teams like the Rockets, Suns and others where trades could really change rankings as we move toward…

Saturday night against the Milwaukee Bucks, Samuel Dalembert picked up a DNP-Coaches Decision. The guy the Mavericks signed this off-season to be a rim protecting big man has already been bumped from the starting lineup back on Dec. 4 (after starting the team’s first 17 games) but now he is fading out of the rotation…

Samuel Dalembert has a knack for making good plays, even though he can be unreliable on and off the court. That’s why the Mavericks could sign him to a two-year deal that pays fewer than $4 million per season and isn’t even fully guaranteed for the second year, a huge bargain for a starting center.…

We know you might have missed some NBA action Monday night as you chased a flock of feral turkeys around New York City, so we bring you grades from the night to help you get caught up. Ty Lawson, Denver Nuggets. Lawson spent the first half of this game deferring (J.J. Hickson had 12 points…

Mark Cuban tweeted out this new Mavericks ad on Friday… and it’s pretty good. So we’re passing it along. And no, I don’t think he’s done. I expect a bounce back season for Nowitzki, who showed he still was an elite scorer in this league last season when he finally got healthy. If Monta Ellis…

Last season: For the first time in his career, Dirk Nowitzki missed a chunk of the season due to major knee surgery. Dallas started 12-15 without their star German then promptly dropped 8-of-9 after his return, putting them in a deep hole. The result was the players grew “.500 beards” they let grow like they…

Ouch. Brandan Wright was going to get some minutes in Dallas — Samuel Dalembert is penciled in as the starting center but he is out of shape and not a guy you give 30 minutes a night to anyway. After that you have Bernard James or you go small (DeJuan Blair). But Wright is out…

If Dallas is going to creep up into one of those final couple playoff spots in the West, they are going to need Samuel Dalembert. Not his offense — he doesn’t have much and the team has more than enough guys who want the rock in their hands anyway (can’t wait for the Dirk Nowitzki,…

Ah, preseason. It’s a time of unbridled optimism for fans, front office people, coaches and even owners. In Dallas they have put together an interesting but kind of ragtag roster — Dirk Nowitzki is the star, Jose Calderon the point, Monta Ellis to score points then guys like Shawn Marion, Vince Carter and Samuel Dalembert…